# Chapter 4

"In order to have any skill, Michael, you need to have experience. And with arguing it's also true." - said Johnathan Molly while pushing a baby carriage with Newt in it. They were walking among the mega-structures in an area resembling a park. It's was an alley with trees by both sides, but as anything in the mega-structures, it was very high in the air. A glimpse over the edge would reveal it. All three of Molly's children and Michael were present.

"Come, Alice..." - waved Johnathan to his daughter - "Show me how you prove that woman there, that her dress is red and not blue.". Frank got pissed - "Why not me?". Johnathan paused for a bit and then said - "Since there nothing to test you on, Frank. You are good and I know it.". Frank excepted the explanation without much enthusiasm. While Alice went toward a woman in the blue dress in front.

"But she is in a blue dress, and I doubt that she is blind..." - started Michael. "Look..." - said Johnathan half smiling.

"Excuse me, miss." - started Alice. The woman looked at her with a kind of slight surprise. But then quickly she fulled up with a smile, since there was a little girl right in front of her. She didn't have time to say "Oh, dear..." as Alice continued in a rude kind of fashion - "Miss, me and my family are quite unsure about the color of your dress."

"Well, it's blue, my dear..."

"The thing is, that half of us argue that the dress in indeed red and not blue. Even though it appears to be blue."

Woman was confused a little, but then she started denying - "But it is blue."

The little girl thought for a second and said - "Well, in my schooling today, we had came across this phenomenon in the human brain that was called visual miss-contemplation. Which is a bug in a human brain. Do you know anything about the infra-red?".

Woman tried not to sound stupid - "It's a...". Alice caught her - "...frequency of light beyond the human vision. The concept of visual miss-contemplation is linked to our perception of purple and magenta colors. Magenta being a blend of blue and red.". Woman scratched her head - "I don't understand.". Alice continued "Radio waves, wireless mega-net, x-ray and all such are just light, the same way color is." 

"I did learn something like this in the school."

"So you probably know that human vision can see colors only between red and blue. Purple or magenta are bugs in the brain. Since there is no frequency for the purple color."

"Wait. But I can see yellow and green and..."

"There is a frequency for yellow. I mean the spectrum goes something like this. Infra red, which is not visible, then red, then orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue... and that's it. The next one is ulta-violet which is not visible also."

The woman thought for bit, trying to understand that new information. It almost shocked her that she never thought about color like this. But then, to sound rather smart, she said - "But violet is kind of purplish.".

This put Alice into a corner. But she said - "Of course it is. But violet shares with ultraviolet only a name. The color it self resembles blue more then violet. It's just our natural tendency to enclose the color spectrum in a circle like this. Adding violet, purple and magenta, which are all just mixes of red and blue."

"Ah..." gasped the woman while her mind was blown. "So there is no purple?". Alice smiled and continued - "Exactly. It's visual miss-contemplation that makes us see purple. But, recently studies have shown that in some cases, red may look like blue and vise versa. It's just the way our brains adopted."

The woman looked at her blue dress - "So you say that it's red?". "Yes..." - said Alice - "... I say that it's red.". Woman thought very deeply as her mind was continuously blown away over and over. "I guess you are right" - she said. Alice smiled to her and waved her hand to the woman. And so the Molly family with Michael continued walking.

"Visual miss-contemplation?" - said Johnathan while smiling like a devil. Alice shrugged - "I needed a scientific sounding name for this phenomenon.". Michael was slightly confused - "So did her dress actually was red?". "No, you dumb ass..." - said Alice - "I was trying to convince her that, not to find the truth."

"Wait, so all this stuff was made up?"

"Yes. I mean, not all of it. You need a basis of reality to argue. But sometimes Dad gives us such a outlandish ideas that with pure reality it would not work. So you have to make something up. I think visual miss-contemplation worked just right."

Michael lighted up with excitement. He thought it was so easy that he could just simply do it himself. "Can I try?" - he said. Johnathan's face filled up with respect as he said - "Here, see this bald man, prove him that he has long hair."

Michael came to that bald man and almost immediately he felt shy. His jaw dropped as he tried to say something, but he couldn't. He looked back at Johnathan who was cheering him up. The man said - "Yes, boy, what do you want?".

"Ah... Me and my teacher are fighting against the question of whether you have hair."

The man didn't feel good about it - "Do you think it's funny? Get away from my face!". Michael tried to be stubborn - "See, mister, there is this concept that I learned not so long about, called boldness hallucination.". The man started violently jerking his way from Michael. Michael, being a total amateur, followed the man. "Stop following me!" - screamed the man back at him, while covering his head. Johnathan caught him from going onward.

"This is called the Dunning-Kruger effect." - started Johnathan. "I don't care!" - Michael jerked his arm out of Johnathan's hand - "Why would I even listen to what you say? Or how it's called? What if you made it up?". Johnathan paused and then said - "Well, first I'm not arguing with you right now, I'm teaching you. And I want to see results. Second, use the mega-net and see it for yourself. It's a rather known function of the brain." Michael calmed down a little bit - "And what are the properties of this function of the brain?". Johnathan smiled - "Well, when a person learns a craft that requires skill, usually in the very beginning the person is too confident about his skill. It happened to me and to all my kids except of Newt. She doesn't know how to talk yet. When you learn a bit more about the craft, your confidence of it lowers down and never comes right back to where it was. If you feel like you don't know what you are doing, that's when you really starting to learn."

Michael was too pissed to understand it - "But I did exactly as she did.". Johnathan paused. He wanted to say "That's the problem", but he held himself from doing so. Michael repeated - "I did exactly as she did.". Michael got saddened. He looked at Alice. She was looking at him with her usual serious look. "That's the problem!" - screamed at him, Frank. "Oh shut up!" - said Michael - "I got it, I need to improvise.". "Let's do it this way..." - said Frank smiling - "... either you convince that woman there, that she is old, or can't look at Alice anymore for the rest of the day.".

Johnathan looked at Michael and then at Alice. He had a weird proud-like sensation. "Michael?" - he said, as if it was communicating all his thoughts about it at once. Michael recharged himself with at most confidence. "Old, eh?" - he said and went to that woman.

Until the next day, he didn't see Alice. He agreed not to look at her. And after a few hours he parted ways with the Molly family and went home. Johnathan waited until Michael was calm again, to explain him the Dunning-Kruger effect again. This time Michael listened. When he was calm and collected, it was easier for him to understand new information. He understood that he need to wait until his confidence drops a little. And then he would become a bit better and for now he needs to listen more. But on the other hand, seeing how a six year old girl convinced a grown woman that her dress was of a different color than it actually was, inspired him very much.
